Judgment, really, doesn't begin until this Saturday when Notre Dame visits Ann Arbor and the Big House gets crazy under the lights.

Michigan hasn't won the Big Ten championship since 2004. There are conference road games at Michigan State, Penn State and Northwestern, and at home against Nebraska and, of course, Ohio State.

Those are six games, right there, which are hardly a given Michigan, just 8-5 last season, will win.

The Wolverines were supposed to pound Central Michigan into submission in their season opener Saturday, but it shouldn't be dismissed they actually did, 59-9.

Ultimately, college football is about having excellent athletes and deploying them in a proper and effective manner. Michigan threw wave after wave of terrific athletes at CMU, and have gotten back to the basics which had been the foundation of its storied football program.

Especially notable was the Wolverines' overall team speed. And it isn't coming from undersized players like during the Rich Rodriguez era. Big, fast, tough - Michigan looked all of it Saturday.

"We just kept pounding away so they wouldn't have the opportunity," Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner said. "We ran the ball well, which was our biggest emphasis in fall camp."

It does start with being able to run the ball. Not from the quarterback position, but with a tailback. It's important because it sets a base for a passing attack using play fakes.

The Wolverines are setup much better in that regard with Gardner at quarterback, and throwing in a boatload of highly-recruited running backs, than their offense being Denard Robinson making big plays out of the pistol formation or bust, which was the case the previous three years.

Fitz Toussaint didn't have a huge game statistically Saturday, but he ran hard and with purpose - more like he did in 2011 than last season when he appeared overwhelmed by well-documented off-the-field issues and suffered a serious injury.

Gardner has a strong arm and pocket presence. He is also an excellent scrambler. He can buy time and make throws down the field. He understands how pick his way through a defense on the run.

Gardner is the undisputed leader of his team. He has poise, and good mobility. He can be a little scatter-armed, but he can gun when necessary.

"It's something he does better than other QBs," Michigan head coach Brady Hoke said.

After getting physically destroyed by eventual national champion Alabama in the season opener, Michigan's defense was good last season. If anything, the Wolverines should be stronger on the defensive side of the ball this year. Certainly, there was nothing in the season opener which suggests Michigan won't be even better defensively this season.

Central Michigan, which was hindered after losing starting quarterback Cody Kater and star running back Zurlon Tipton early in this game, had a 131 total yards through three quarters.

The buildup for the Notre Dame game is going to be huge this week. When the two teams met in 2011 under the lights, it was as wonderful a college football setting as imaginable. The game matched it, too, with a spectacular Michigan comeback victory engineered by Robinson, who might have played his best college game.

Notre Dame played in the BCS title game last year, so its cache is very high. It's also a setting you will not see at Michigan Stadium for many years because Notre Dame has shifted its focus to playing an ACC-centered schedule in the future.

If Michigan wins impressively this Saturday, it figures the Wolverines will sky-rocket in the polls. If the Wolverines lose, nobody will be impressed with the way they routed Central Michigan Saturday.

"It's about winning championships," Hoke said. "If we get satisfied for one effort, it isn't going to happen."

True enough.

But it was still an impressive start for the Wolverines.

Pat Caputo is a senior sports reporter and a columnist for The Oakland Press. Contact him at pat.caputo@oakpress.com and read his blog at theoaklandpress.com. You can follow him on Twitter @patcaputo98